Errors galore in new textbooks, schools' association writes to minister

The revised state syllabus textbooks are riddled with errors and printing issues, an association of private school managements wrote to Primary and Secondary Education minister Tanveer Sait on Wednesday.

General secretary of Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS), Shashi Kumar D said that schools were disappointed with the new textbooks, which were revised by a committee headed by Prof Baragur Ramachandrappa. 

In the Class X physical education textbook, Saina Nehwal is spelt correctly in the first paragraph and as ‘Sania’ in the next. On the same page, Phillipines is spelt as ‘Philipens’. According to the textbook, P V Sindhu won a bronze medal in the 2016 Olympics when in fact, she won a silver medal.

“The books have plenty of spelling mistakes, in some cases in the first page itself. There are factual errors in the content. Even the quality of the paper is poor,” Kumar said.

Printing problems
Besides factual errors and spelling mistakes, the textbooks have several printing problems. In the class VII Kannada textbook, the pages 24 to 57 are blank. In the Class X English textbook, about 20 pages are printed upside down.

Kumar said that such printing errors result in loss in transportation costs for the school and is also a loss for students who have purchased the textbooks. 

“The committee spent so many months to revise the textbooks, yet there are so many spelling and factual errors. Someone should take responsibility for this,” he said. In the letter, the association has sought rectification of errors and replacement of books with printing errors.

He also said that schools have not yet received all the textbooks they had ordered. “Most of them have only received 50% to 60 % of their requirement,” Kumar said.
DH News Service